Dukkah (or duqqa) is an Egyptian dish, into which one might dip bread, which generally contains a mixture of nuts, spices and occasionally herbs. For instance, my recipe contains hazelnuts, which tends to be the norm for this side-dish. However, other potential nuts that will quite happily take their place in dukkah include, but are not limited to, pistachios and cashews. Indeed, almost any nut will work well here.

Since dukkah is supremely flavourful, necessitates very little preparation and takes a surprisingly long time to disappear, even with a number of people clawing at it at once, it is perfectly suited to gatherings and dinner parties. Of course, these characteristics also make it a very effective frugal dish, a very rare trait where nuts are concerned. Still, I guess that’s the current point of my existence – to prove that one can eat well on a budget! Continue reading

Does anybody else find it a little strange that salads are generally at their best when their creator has played a little loose and fast with the definition of the term? A salad is fairly stringently defined as something made with raw vegetables, though the Americans would have it that tuna mixed with mayonnaise should be described as a salad. Yet, there have been countless instances, this being one of them, where there is no better word to describe what one is eating. Perhaps the title of this recipe ought to be suffixed with the phrase, ‘for want of a better term’.

A couple of blog posts ago I mentioned a rather large marrow that our family had recently entered into possession of. This dish is what I came up with. There seems to be little one can do with marrow, other than stuff it. To be honest, it is a rather tasteless fruit despite it being a member of the generally tasty squash family. However, it does have a great juicy quality about it which, when combined with appropriate ingredients, is rather pleasing. Indeed, in culinary terms one should consider it something of a blank canvas. I’m not sure if the Americans among us know exactly what a marrow is. Happily, I have recently been advised that it is essentially an overgrown courgette – zucchini to you defacers of the English language.